Submarine vessel.



C. LAURENTI.

SUBMARINE VESSEL. APPL'IGATION FILED MAY 20,1913.

1,120,392, Patented Dec. 8, 1914.

HE NORRIS PETERS $0.. PHOTOLITHOH WASH/N6 rorv. n r

UNITED STATES PATENT onrion CESARE LAURENTI, or SPEZIA, ITALY, ASSIGNOR T0 soeIE'rA .ANONIM-A FIAT-SAN GIORGIO, or SPEZIA, ITALY.

'SUBMARINE VESSEL.

Application filed May 20, 1913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CnsARE LAURENTI, engineer, residing at Spezia, Italy, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in or Relating to Submarine Vessels, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to improvements in submarine vessels and has particular reference to the arrangement and construction of chambers for housing accumulators.

The powerful batteries of accumulators on board submarine vessels may cause danger to the life of the crew. Apart from the possibility of gas explosions while chargingwhich forms perhaps the greatest danger to the battery and the life of the men, there is a more serious danger, both with regard to its consequences and also in the fact that it arises with comparative ease, in the liberation of suffocating and irrespirable gases in the accumulator chamber. These gases may be liberated, for instance, by the burning of the ebonite boxes and accessories of hard rubber in consequence of a short circuit or through the contact of sea water and sulfuric acid (the electrolyte in the cells) in the event of an injury to the pipes allowing sea water to gain access to the battery chamber. In the latter case chlorin is liberated in the nascent state, and this is of course dangerous, even when the amount present in the air is but small.

The object of the present invention is to isolate the chamber in which the accumulators in submarine vessels are inclosed from the other parts of the ships hull, without changing the shape and internal distribution of the rooms in any way, and without setting up any difliculties in the way of the ordinary service on board. This is for the purpose of avoiding the dangerous conse quences arising from the liberation of gases.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a vertical transverse section of a submarine vessel and Fig. 2 is a horizontal transverse section of same.

By means of the wall a, which is curved, a portion of the chamber intended for housing the accumulators is separated from the rest of the chamber, so as to form a kind of Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 8, 1914.

Serial No. 768,701.

gallery or gangway, between the said wall a and the hull of the vessel. Although the wall a is only thin, its curvature enables it to stand the hydraulic pressure corresponding to the depth for which the submarine vessel is designed. The gallery is closed at both endswhich are co-terminous with the Walls of the battery chamberby two Well curved walls which are provided with an exit door Z) just large enough for the men to pass through. In ordinary service the doors 7) may be left wide open, to enable the crew to pass from one part of the vessel to another. The walls bounding the ends of the battery chamber are also provided with exit doors 0 which may ordinarily, that is to say while the submarine is on the surface of the water, remain open, in order to facilitate entrance to and passage through the chamber. WVhen in ordinary diving or in case of injury, or merely as a precautionary measure while the batteries are being charged, it

is desired to shut off the battery chamber completely from the rest of the vessel, all that is necessary is to close the doors 0, and to make use of the doors Z) to place the various parts in communication through the lateral gangway. Also the main switch may be located outside the battery chamber, so that in the event of any damage to the batteries in the chamber they can be disconnected from the rest of the electrical plant.

What I claim is:

1. A submarine vessel having a battery chamber, there being end walls for such chamber disposed transversely of the vessel and provided with doorways, and doors for closing such doorways, and a partition disposed at one side of such chamber and extending from one end wall to the other and spaced from the side of the vessel for forming a gangway laterally of the said chamber for afi'ording communication between the portions of the vessel disposed forwardly and rearwardly of the said chamber.

2. A submarine vessel having a battery chamber, there being end walls for such chamber disposed transversely of the vessel and provided with doorways, and doors for closing such doorways, and an inwardly curved partition disposed at one side of such chamber and extending from one end wall In witness whereof, I have hereunto to the other and secured to the side of the signed my name in the presence of two subvessel for forming a gangway laterally of scribing Witnesses.

the said chamber for afiording commu'nica- GESABELAURENTI. tion between the portions of the Vessel dis- Witnesses:

posed forwardly and rearwardly of the said GUIDO CONSED, v- V chamber. I BQRAYNN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by {addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. 

